Brookhaven National Laboratory continues its multi-year program to improve the operational efficiency, reliability, and stability of the cryogenic system, which also resulted in an improved beam availability of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This paper summarizes the work and changes made after each phase over the past four years to the present, as well as proposed future improvements. Power usage dropped from an initial 9.4 MW to the present 5.1 MW and is expected to drop below 5 MW after the completion of the remaining proposed improvements. The work proceeded in phases, balancing the Collider's schedule of operation, timemore » required for the modifications and budget constraints. The main changes include process control, compressor oil removal and management, elimination of the use of cold compressors and two liquid-helium storage tanks, insulation of the third liquid-helium storage tank, compressor-bypass flow reduction and the addition of a load turbine (Joule-Thomson ex« less

Brookhaven National Laboratory has tested a recooler heat exchanger intended to be used in the cryogenic system of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The unit is required to transfer 225 Watts from a supercritical helium stream flowing at 100 g/s to a helium bath boiling at 4.25 K. Measurements made with heat loads of 50 to over 450 Watts on the unit indicate its cooling capacity is greater than 400 Watts, as expected, and it will be suitable for use in the RHIC ring. Presented are the modifications made to BNL`s MAGCOOL test facility that were necessary for testing, testmore » procedure, and recooler performance.« less

Brookhaven National Laboratory has tested a recooler heat exchanger intended to be used in the cryogenic system of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The unit is required to transfer 225 Watts from a supercritical helium stream flowing at 100 g/s to a helium bath boiling at 4.25 K. Measurements made with heat loads of 50 to over 450 Watts on the unit indicate its cooling capacity is greater than 400 Watts, as expected, and it will be suitable for use in the RHIC ring. Presented are the modifications made to BNL`s MAGCOOL test facility that were necessary for testing, testmore » procedure, and recooler performance.« less

THERE ARE ONLY A FEW OTHER HIGH ENERGY PARTICLE ACCELERATORS LIKE RHIC IN THE WORLD. THEREFORE, THE DESIGNERS OF THE MACHINE DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE CONSENSUS DESIGN STANDARDS AND REGULATORY GUIDANCE AVAILABLE TO ESTABLISH THE ENGINEERING PARAMETERS FOR SAFETY. SOME OF THE AREAS WHERE STANDARDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE RELATE TO THE CRYOGENIC SYSTEM, CONTAINMENT OF LARGE VOLUMES OF FLAMMABLE GAS IN FRAGILE VESSELS IN THE EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND MITIGATION OF A DESIGN BASIS ACCIDENT WITH A STORED PARTICLE BEAM. UNIQUE BUT EQUIVALENT SAFETY ENGINEERING MUST BE DETERMINED. SPECIAL DESIGN CRITERIA FOR PROMPT RADIATION WERE DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR THEmore » DESIGN OF RADIATION SHIELDING.« less

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is a high energy particle accelerator built to study basic nuclear physics. It consists of two counter-rotating beams of fully stripped gold ions that are accelerated in two rings to an energy of 100 GeV/nucleon. The rings consist of a circular lattice of superconducting magnets 3.8 km in circumference. The beams can be stored for a period of five to ten hours and brought into collision for experiments during that time. The first major physics objective when the facility goes into operation is to recreate a state of matter, the quark-gluon plasma, that hasmore » been predicted to have existed at a short time after the creation of the universe. There are only a few other high energy particle accelerators like RHIC in the world. The rules promulgated in the Code of Federal Regulations under the Atomic Energy Act do not cover prompt radiation from accelerators, nor are there any State regulations that govern the design and operation of a superconducting collider. Special design criteria for prompt radiation were developed to provide guidance for the design of radiation shielding.« less